GENCAT(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 						 GENCAT(1)

NAME

     gencat -- generates a Native Language Support (NLS) message catalog file

SYNOPSIS

     gencat catfile [msgfile|- ...]

DESCRIPTION

     The gencat utility generates a formatted message catalog catfile from stdin or one or more message source text files msgfile.  The file
     catfile is created if it does not already exist.  If catfile does exist, its messages are included in the new catfile.  The new message text
     defined in msgfile replaces the old message text currently in catfile when the set and message numbers match.

     The generated message catalog contains message strings that will be retrieved using the catgets(3) library call.  These messages are dynami-
     cally loaded by the Native Language Support (NLS) library at run time.  Error messages are grouped into sets, and a program can load a par-
     ticular set depending on which type, or language, of messages is desired.

   Message Text Source File Format
     The message text source files are text files in the format described below.  Note that the fields of a message text source line are separated
     by space or tab characters.

     $set n comment
	  Determines the set identifier to be used for all subsequent messages until the next $set or end-of-file.  The n is the set identifier
	  which is defined as a number in the range [1, NL_SETMAX].  Set identifiers within a single source file need not be contiguous.  Any
	  string following the set identifier is treated as a comment.	If no $set directive is specified in a message text source file, all mes-
	  sages will be located in the default message set NL_SETD.

     $delset n comment
	  Removes message set n from the catalog.  The n is a set identifier in the range [1, NL_SETMAX].  If a message set was created earlier in
	  the current file, or in a file previously read by the gencat command, this directive will remove it.	Any string following the set iden-
	  tifier is treated as a comment.

     $ comment
	  A line beginning with $ followed by a space or tab character is treated as a comment.

     m message-text
	  A message line consists of a message identifier m in the range [1, NL_MSGMAX] and the message-text.  The message-text is read until the
	  end of the line or a quote character (if one is specified).  The message-text is stored in the message catalog with the set identifier
	  specified by the last $set directive, and the message identifier m.  If the message-text is empty and there is a space or tab character
	  following the message identifier, an empty string is stored in the message catalog.  If no message-text is provided, and if there is no
	  space or tab character following the message identifier, the message with the message identifier m in the current set is removed from
	  the catalog.	Message identifiers need not be contiguous within a single set.  The length of message-text must be in the range [0,
	  NL_TEXTMAX].

     $quote c
	  Sets an optional quote character to be used around the message-text.	The quote character c may be any character other than white space.
	  If this is specified, then messages must begin and end with the quote character.  This is useful when messages must contain leading
	  white space.	By default no quote character is used.	If an empty $quote directive is specified, then the current quote character is
	  unset.

     Empty lines and leading blanks in a message text source file are ignored.	Any line beginning with any character other than those described
     above is ignored as a syntax error.

     Text message strings may contain any characters and the following special characters and escape sequences.

	   Description	      Symbol	Sequence
	   newline	      NL(LF)	

	   horizontal tab     HT		
	   vertical tab       VT	v
	   backspace	      BS	
	   carriage return    CR	
	   form feed	      FF	f
	   backslash	       	\
	   bit pattern	      ddd	ddd

     A bit pattern, ddd, consists of a backslash followed by one, two, or three octal digits representing the value of the character.	The cur-
     rent quote character, if defined, may be escaped with a backslash to generate the quote character.  Any character following the backslash
     ('') other than those specified is ignored.

     A backslash at the end of the line continues the message onto the next line.  The following two lines are an example of such a message:

	   1 This message continues 
	   on the next line

     Producing the following message:

	   1 This message continues on the next line

EXIT STATUS

     The gencat utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO

     catclose(3), catgets(3), catopen(3), nls(7)

AUTHORS

     The Native Language Support (NLS) message catalog facility was contributed by J.T. Conklin <jtc@NetBSD.org>.  This page was originally writ-
     ten by
     Kee Hinckley <nazgul@somewhere.com>.

BSD
								 December 29, 2011							       BSD